Enjoy the first sunbeams
Griessee at Nufenenpass in Switzerland
Griessee at Nufenenpass in Switzerland
Read less
Read less
Sep, 2016Views
690
Likes
Awards
Contest Finalist in People Hiking Project
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Magnificent Capture
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Top Ranks
Top 20 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 30 rank
Top 20 rankTop 20 rank week 1
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken at gries glacier on the nufenen pass in the heart of Switzerland.Time
Because I took the picture in summer the sun raised late, so I hadn't to get up very early. It was around 7 o'clock after a very cold night with around -9°C but fortunately it was also a very clear night with a lovely view to milky way.Lighting
The colder the night the more beautiful the light at least if you slept in a tent and not in your bed. I really like the hole area around nufenen pass and the neighboring passes like Grimsel, furka and susten pass because the weather is sometimes very changeable, especially in autumn. Moreover you have mostly a very warm and clear light during sunrise and sunset. Unfortunately the gries glacier is surrounded by many other mountains and the light from sunrise reaches the glacier only around noon and then it's to bright in my opinion. Nonetheless, I like the image the way it is and I really like how the light illuminates the top of the mountains more and more. So, I can really recommend you to sit there, watching the light and drink a hot tea. The colder your night the better it will be.Equipment
I used my Nikon D600 with a Nikon 24mm f2.8 lens and a tripod from Manfrotto.Inspiration
The main reason why I went to this place was to take pictures of milky way, because you have almost no light pollution and the combination of glacier, lake and mountains is a great foreground for milky way photos. I think it was the second or third time that I was camping there, so I knew that the light from sunrise is always worth to take some photos. The landscape is simple but very beautiful, especially in with the morning light. The background speaks for itself and luckily there were many soft clouds which made the picture even more interesting. To make the foreground more exciting I placed myself into the picture.Editing
I post-processed it in Lightroom but I did not that much and it didn't take 5 minutes. The colors from light are quite out of cam, I only lighted up the foreground a bit because I wanted to catch all of the lights in sky and therefore I took it a bit underexposed.In my camera bag
Usually I use my Nikon D600 with the Nikon 24mm f2.8 lens for landscape photographing. I really like this combination because the full frame sensor of the D600 is very good in high ISO situations and the body has a really comfortable size but it's not that heavy. If you compare the 24mm lens with a new Sigma ART lens then it's probably much worse but it's much smaller, lighter and cheaper and if you have to carry your backbag up to mountain than it's often the better and more comfortable choice. Additionally I have some neutral density and polarizing filters but I don't use them very often. Of course there are always some spare batteries for the camera and the remote shutter controller. Especially the remote shutter control makes the life much easier and I don't really know why I haven't used one for years. But the most important thing, next to the camera of course, is a good tripod. I always use a Manfrotto 190 in the aluminum version, it's stable, more or less light and fairly priced. Sometimes I also use a Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens for my landscape photos and the last few times I went to the mountains I realized that the Sigma 105mm f2.8 macro is not only a great lens for macro and portrait, it's also very useable for landscape photography. With the longer focal length it can be a challenge in landscape photography at the beginning but it offers also some nice possibilities with close up pictures of mountains or glaciers.Feedback
To bring your picture to a bit more life you can easily place yourself into the picture. A nice side effect is that it's easier for the observer to imagine the vastness of the landscape. I cannot really give you a very secret or exciting advice, it's actually quite simple; the earlier you are on your spot the higher your chance to capture the most spectacular light, fog, sky or whatever. For myself I prefer to go out for landscape photographing at rather bad weather forecasts; the chances for interesting weather and light is much higher and on very common places you have less people and tourists. Furthermore you are more proud about your pictures when you had to suffer for it. Ah I totally forgot, I have some painfully experienced advices for you: If you plan to sleep in a tent at really cold nights don't drink to much before you go inside your sleeping bag. It's such a pain if you have to leave your warm sleeping bag and go outside for toilet and than returning in your sleeping bag, obviously its now very cold and you won't sleep for the next hour because you will freeze quite a lot. The second advice is: If you follow advice number one you will be very thirsty at the morning but of course you putted your water somewhere in the tent. The result is, all of your water is frozen and you will be thirsty a few hours longer. So, do yourself a favor and put your water inside your sleeping bag.
